Douglas Murray is a bestselling author and award-winning journalist based in London. He has written for numerous publications including the Telegraph, Spectator, Wall Street Journal and Sunday Times. He is a columnist for Standpoint magazine and the Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, a Westminster think-tank which studies radicalisation and extremism in Britain.

The 'Conservative Muslim Forum' has some explaining to do

This week Theresa May announced that she was keeping extremist cleric Zakir Naik out of Britain. But something interesting has come to my attention. One of the charities which was planning to host Naik at a "peace convention" is Al-Khair. They were hosting it with Peace TV and IQRA TV.

Interestingly, here is a photo of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum, the Conservative party's Muslim group, at an event last year where they handed over a cheque for £5,000 to Al-Khair and praised the foundation's work. They did this at the launch of IQRA TV, another of the hosts of the now-banned Naik.

So, do the Conservative Muslim Forum approve of the decision of the Home Secretary? Or do they think the invitation to this now-banned extremist from a charity they praised and financed should have gone ahead? If there is to be agreement within the Conservative Party I think we should probably be told.

And isn't this yet another reminder that groups like the Conservative Muslim Forum within political parties are not merely an embarassment, but a liability?